Free Urban Legends Explorer & Truth Checker

Chloe of the Myrtles Plantation - The Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana

Verdict: Mostly false

One local-history source reports that parish records show members of the Woodruff family died of yellow fever at different times, not all together by poison, and that no record names a Chloe among the plantation's enslaved people.

Coral Castle - Homestead, Florida

Verdict: False

Live Science reports that over 1,000 tons of oolite limestone were quarried and shaped by Leedskalnin using hand tools, winches, ropes and pulleys.

Huggin' Molly of Abbeville - Abbeville, Alabama

Verdict: Unproven

Huggin' Molly is a local bedtime-warning story.

Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado - Hotel del Coronado, Coronado, California

Verdict: Based on a real event

The 1892 guest and her death are documented, but much about her background and why she came remains unknown, and details such as the room number vary between retellings.

La Llorona - Rivers and waterways across Mexico and Spanish-speaking communities

Verdict: Unproven

La Llorona is a cherished folk legend, and this entry rates only the factual question of whether a real weeping ghost has been documented, not the tradition itself.

Lincoln's Ghost in the White House - The White House, Washington, DC

Verdict: Unproven

The sightings are anecdotes, usually told second-hand, and no documented evidence of a ghost exists.

Mercy Brown and the New England Vampire Panic - Exeter, Rhode Island

Verdict: Based on a real event

The exhumation and the family's illness are documented, and the event happened because tuberculosis was poorly understood.

Pele's Curse on Lava Rocks - Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii

Verdict: False

The National Park Service describes Pele as a revered Hawaiian deity and says her presence is approached with respect, not fear.

Resurrection Mary - Resurrection Cemetery, Justice, Illinois

Verdict: Unproven

Selzer says he has collected a few dozen first-hand accounts, which is more than most Chicago ghost stories have, but accounts are still not proof of a ghost.

Robert the Doll - Fort East Martello Museum, Key West, Florida

Verdict: Unproven

The doll is a real, handmade 40-inch sailor-suit doll in the museum, and the Society describes him as made around the turn of the 20th century.

Stull Cemetery, the Gateway to Hell - Stull, Douglas County, Kansas

Verdict: False

Snopes concludes there is no evidence of any haunting or supernatural events in Stull.

The Amityville Horror - Amityville, Long Island, New York

Verdict: False

Snopes reports that the lawyer later admitted that he and the family 'created this horror story over many bottles of wine'.

The Annabelle Doll - Monroe, Connecticut

Verdict: Unproven

The doll is a real Raggedy Ann doll that was displayed in the Warrens' museum in Monroe, Connecticut.

The Bell Witch - Adams, Robertson County, Tennessee

Verdict: Unproven

No physical evidence of a spirit exists; the sources present the events as reported, with some details (such as the Andrew Jackson visit) belonging to later retellings.

The Bermuda Triangle - Western Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico

Verdict: False

NOAA says there is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean.

The Brown Mountain Lights - Brown Mountain, Burke County, North Carolina

Verdict: Mixed

The USGS concluded in 1922 that the lights were 'clearly not of unusual nature or origin' and were a combination of natural and human conditions, including automobile and train headlights and fog.

The Centralia Mine Fire - Centralia, Columbia County, Pennsylvania

Verdict: True

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection timeline says the fire began in May 1962, that state and federal governments spent $3.3 million by 1978 with limited results, and that a 1983 study put the cost of extinguishing it at $663 million.

The Demon Cat of the U.S. Capitol - U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC

Verdict: Unproven

The Architect of the Capitol says pawprints in the floor near the Old Supreme Court Chamber are real but are more likely from cats once used to catch vermin.

The Face in the Courthouse Window - Old Pickens County Courthouse, Carrollton, Alabama

Verdict: Mostly false

The Cullman Times, reviewing 1870s newspapers, found that the courthouse did burn on November 16, 1876, but that Wells was captured in 1878, died of gunshot wounds in jail days later, and the new courthouse did not yet have windows at the time.

The Flying Dutchman - Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Verdict: Unproven

Real Dutch East India Company captains such as Bernard Fokke and Hendrik Van der Decken are often named as the source, but Skeptoid reports no record connects either man to the curse or to the nickname during their lifetimes.

The Ghosts of Gettysburg - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Verdict: Unproven

The battle and its toll are well documented, and visitors do report strange experiences.

The Ghosts of the RMS Queen Mary - RMS Queen Mary, Long Beach, California

Verdict: Unproven

The ship, her wartime nickname and her 1967 purchase by Long Beach are documented.

The Gray Man of Pawleys Island - Pawleys Island, South Carolina

Verdict: Unproven

No documented evidence of a ghost exists, and the origin stories conflict, so the identity of the figure is unknown.

The Great Boston Molasses Flood - North End, Boston, Massachusetts

Verdict: Based on a real event

A tank holding about 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst around 12:40 p.m., killing 21 people and injuring about 150, according to HISTORY and the Boston Public Library.

The Greenbrier Ghost - Greenbrier County, West Virginia

Verdict: Based on a real event

The trial, the examination of the exhumed body and the conviction are documented in e-WV and in newspaper reports of the 1897 trial.

The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow - Sleepy Hollow, New York

Verdict: False

Historic Hudson Valley says Irving may have been inspired by folk stories he heard abroad, such as German, Irish and Scandinavian headless-rider tales, and reimagined them in a Hudson Valley setting, adding real local names for an air of authenticity.

The Lady of White Rock Lake - White Rock Lake, Dallas, Texas

Verdict: Unproven

The Lakewood Advocate says there are very few facts to support the story, which experts see as a version of the very common vanishing-hitchhiker tale, and that a paranormal researcher found very little contemporary evidence that anyone drowned in the lake in the 1930s or 1940s.

The Lemp Mansion - Lemp Mansion, South St. Louis, Missouri

Verdict: Unproven

The family's history, the brewery and the mansion are real and well documented.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke - Roanoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina

Verdict: Based on a real event

The National Park Service says the governor found 'CRO' carved in a tree and 'CROATOAN' carved into a palisade, with no signs of a struggle or hasty departure, and that no one has definitively proven what happened to the colonists.

The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine - Superstition Mountains, near Apache Junction, Arizona

Verdict: Unproven

Jacob Waltz was a real man, and Arizona Highways reports that witnesses said they saw him sell small amounts of gold in the 1880s.

The Maco Light - Maco Station, near Wilmington, North Carolina

Verdict: Unproven

The NC Archives notes suggested causes such as car headlights or marsh gas, and offers newspaper accounts from January 1856 of a railroad accident that seriously injured a man named Charles Baldwin, as a possible real seed for the story.

The Marfa Lights - Marfa, Presidio County, Texas

Verdict: Mixed

The Texas State Historical Association says many explanations have been offered, including electrostatic discharge, swamp gas, moonlight on mica and ghosts, and calls the most plausible one an atmospheric mirage-like effect from layers of warm and cold air bending light.

The Mary Celeste - Atlantic Ocean, east of the Azores

Verdict: Based on a real event

Smithsonian Magazine reports the ship was seaworthy and well stocked, carrying 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol, but its lifeboat was missing and none of the ten people who had sailed aboard was found.

The Old Leatherman - Connecticut and New York

Verdict: Based on a real event

NPR reports the Leatherman walked a roughly 365-mile route, a loop he completed about every 34 days, and that his actual identity remains unknown; a newspaper-reported name was retracted.

The San Antonio Ghost Tracks - Shane Road railroad crossing, San Antonio, Texas

Verdict: False

Snopes says no similar accident took place in San Antonio, and calls the ghost tracks 'nothing more than an optical illusion': a slight slope makes a car in neutral roll off the tracks.

The Stanley Hotel and The Shining - The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

Verdict: Mixed

King's stay and the link to his novel are well documented in news coverage.

The Vanishing Hitchhiker - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Beardsley and Hankey searched for a real accident behind the version they first heard and found none; they also found no single original story from which the others descended.

The White Lady and the Vanishing Hitchhiker - Told everywhere

Verdict: Unproven

The Lakewood Advocate notes experts see the White Rock Lake tale as one version of the very common vanishing-hitchhiker legend, with few facts behind it.

The Winchester Mystery House - San Jose, California

Verdict: Mixed

The house is real, huge and was under construction for decades, and Sarah Winchester lost an infant daughter and her husband.

The Witch of Yazoo - Glenwood Cemetery, Yazoo City, Mississippi

Verdict: Mixed

The Visit Yazoo tourism office says the fire destroyed over 200 residences and 324 buildings, that no cause was ever proven, and that the most popular explanation is that it began in a house.

Altamaha-ha - Altamaha River, near Darien, Georgia

Verdict: Unproven

Evidence has been anecdotal and, as with Loch Ness, essentially nonexistent.

Area 51 - Groom Lake, Nevada

Verdict: Mixed

The base is real.

Bigfoot (Sasquatch) - Pacific Northwest and northern California

Verdict: Unproven

No body, bones or conclusive physical evidence of such an animal has been found.

Bran Castle as Dracula's Castle - Bran, near Brasov, Transylvania, Romania

Verdict: Mostly false

Radio Free Europe reports historians say there is little or no connection between Vlad the Impaler and the castle, that Bran was never in his possession, and that it is unclear whether he ever set foot there.

Champ, the Lake Champlain Monster - Lake Champlain, Vermont and New York

Verdict: Unproven

Investigator Benjamin Radford found the Mansi object was smaller than she remembered and concluded it was most likely a tree trunk lifted to the surface by gases from decay.

Momo the Missouri Monster - Louisiana, Pike County, Missouri

Verdict: Unproven

Some residents think a trio of high school boys pulled off a hoax, though no one has admitted it.

Mothman - Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Verdict: Unproven

No specimen or clear photograph has ever been produced.

Ogopogo - Okanagan Lake, British Columbia

Verdict: Unproven

This entry rates only modern claims that a physical animal lives in the lake, not the Syilx spiritual tradition.

Skinwalker Ranch - Uintah Basin, northeastern Utah

Verdict: Unproven

This entry rates only the ranch's modern paranormal claims, not Navajo or other Native beliefs.

Spring-heeled Jack - London, England

Verdict: Based on a real event

Descriptions of Jack varied, and no convincing evidence has been found for the popular theory that a nobleman was behind the attacks.

Tahoe Tessie - Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border

Verdict: Unproven

KQED notes Lake Tahoe is only about 3.5 million years old, so nothing in it can be prehistoric, and a source it quotes suggests people may be seeing an unusually large sturgeon.

The Bear Lake Monster - Bear Lake, on the Utah-Idaho border

Verdict: False

A 2023 Deseret News article says Rich later said it was 'a world-class lie'.

The Beast of Bray Road - Bray Road, near Elkhorn, Wisconsin

Verdict: Unproven

No physical proof, such as a body, has been reported in the sources checked.

The Beast of Busco - Fulk Lake, Churubusco, Indiana

Verdict: Based on a real event

The search was real and widely reported, but Oscar was never caught.

The Beast of Gévaudan - Gévaudan region, south-central France

Verdict: Based on a real event

National Geographic reports the Beast killed as many as 100 people over three years (some sources say up to 300), that more than a hundred wolves were killed in the region in that period, and that scholars still debate which animal was responsible.

The Betty and Barney Hill Abduction - Franconia Notch and the White Mountains, New Hampshire

Verdict: Unproven

The papers and tapes of Betty and Barney Hill have been held by the University of New Hampshire since 2006, and a New Hampshire historical marker stands near the site.

The Bunny Man - Fairfax County, Virginia

Verdict: Based on a real event

Fairfax County Public Library historian Brian Conley found that the details of the popular online version do not hold up: the county never had an asylum, the prison named in the story did not open until 1910, the named people do not appear in county court records, and the library the story cites never existed.

The Chupacabra - Puerto Rico, spreading to Latin America, Mexico and Texas

Verdict: False

Radford traced the description to the 1995 science-fiction film Species, which Tolentino had seen in the weeks before; she described a creature that resembled the film's alien.

The Dover Demon - Dover, Massachusetts

Verdict: Unproven

The sightings spanned about 26 hours, and two of the witnesses made drawings that look alike.

The Flathead Lake Monster - Flathead Lake, Montana

Verdict: Unproven

Hanzel documented about 85 sightings by 2007 but never found scientific evidence during decades of work on the lake, and his acoustic equipment detected no large unknown animals.

The Flatwoods Monster - Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia

Verdict: Mostly false

Investigator Joe Nickell, interviewed by Snopes, concluded the light was a meteor seen across several states and that the 'monster' was most likely a barn owl defending young, whose glowing eyes and spread wings the frightened group misread.

The Florida Skunk Ape - Everglades, Big Cypress Swamp and Myakka River area, Florida

Verdict: Unproven

No skunk ape has been captured or confirmed.

The Fouke Monster - Fouke, Miller County, Arkansas

Verdict: Unproven

Investigators found strange tracks and claw scratches on the porch, but the encyclopedia says they never found blood or a body.

The Goatman of Prince George's County - Fletchertown Road, Bowie, Prince George's County, Maryland

Verdict: Unproven

No evidence of a goat-man has been found.

The Hodag - Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Verdict: False

The Wisconsin Historical Society says the exhibit was carved from wood by a woodcarver, covered with ox hide and fitted with cattle horns and wires so the head could move.

The Jersey Devil - Pine Barrens, New Jersey

Verdict: False

No historian has found a real 'Mother Leeds' or any 1735 record of such a birth.

The Kecksburg UFO - Kecksburg, Pennsylvania

Verdict: Unproven

A bright fireball in the sky that night is well reported; what, if anything, landed is not.

The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter - Kelly, near Hopkinsville, Kentucky

Verdict: Based on a real event

The terror of the eleven witnesses was real and investigators found shell casings, but no creatures or other evidence.

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp - Scape Ore Swamp, near Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina

Verdict: Unproven

No creature was ever captured.

The Loch Ness Monster - Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands

Verdict: Unproven

In 2018 a team led by geneticist Neil Gemmell of the University of Otago collected 250 water samples from Loch Ness for an environmental DNA census.

The Loveland Frog - Loveland, Ohio (Little Miami River)

Verdict: False

Skeptoid could find no contemporary news articles or police reports from either date.

The Michigan Dogman - Northern Michigan (Traverse City area)

Verdict: False

The creature began as Cook's fictional character in a song.

The Minnesota Iceman - Carnival exhibit from southeastern Minnesota (toured the U.S.)

Verdict: False

Smithsonian primatologist John Napier examined it and concluded it was a latex model.

The Mogollon Monster - Mogollon Rim, Arizona

Verdict: Unproven

Arizona Highways describes it as Arizona's homegrown Bigfoot variant that 'almost certainly doesn't exist'.

The Montauk Monster - Montauk, Long Island, New York

Verdict: False

Scientists who looked at the photos concluded it was a raccoon whose body had decomposed in seawater.

The Pedro Mountain Mummy - Pedro Mountains, near Casper, Wyoming

Verdict: Mostly false

WyoHistory.org reports the discovery itself appears real, but the mummy was almost certainly a human baby.

The Pope Lick Monster - Pope Lick trestle, Fisherville, near Louisville, Kentucky

Verdict: False

No one has ever seen a goat man, and Skeptoid notes it has no connection to any real historical event.

The Roswell Incident - Near Roswell, New Mexico

Verdict: Based on a real event

A 1994 US Air Force report concluded the debris came from Project Mogul, a Top Secret program that used high-altitude balloons to listen for Soviet nuclear tests, with test flights launched from Alamogordo, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947.

The Snallygaster - Frederick County, Maryland (Middletown Valley and South Mountain)

Verdict: False

Historian and librarian Susan Fair, quoted in The Baltimore Banner, found no sign of the Snallygaster in older collections of western Maryland folklore, and concluded the 1909 and 1932 stories were created by the newspaper's staff; she also found the early articles were framed to frighten Black residents.

The Van Meter Visitor - Van Meter, Dallas County, Iowa

Verdict: Unproven

Iowa PBS says the true nature of the Visitor remains a mystery.

The White River Monster - White River near Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas

Verdict: Unproven

In 1973 the Arkansas General Assembly passed Senate Resolution 23, sponsored by Sen.

The Yeti - Himalaya, Nepal and Tibet

Verdict: Mostly false

This entry rates only whether an undiscovered ape-like animal has been documented, not the traditional stories of the region.

D.B. Cooper - Skies between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington

Verdict: Based on a real event

The hijacking is real and was investigated by the FBI for 45 years.

Poisoned Halloween Candy from Strangers - United States

Verdict: Mostly false

University of Delaware sociologist Joel Best says he cannot find any evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously hurt by a contaminated treat picked up while trick-or-treating, and has reviewed reports since the 1950s.

Razor Blades in Halloween Candy - United States

Verdict: Mostly false

Best has never found a single substantiated report of a child killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up while trick-or-treating.

The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Mental Floss notes the exact scenario does not seem to have ever been documented, although there are real reports of babysitters being attacked.

The Clown Statue - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Snopes rates it a legend and notes that all the tellings it encountered end with the intruder fleeing and being captured by the police.

The Killer in the Backseat - Told everywhere

Verdict: Mostly false

Part of the tale rests on reality: there are several documented cases of people hiding in the back seats of vehicles, including a 1964 case where a criminal hid in a police officer's car.

The 'Lights Out' Gang Initiation - United States

Verdict: False

Salt Lake City police called it 'a total hoax' in 1993 and said it began with a prank fax; Snopes reports the 'Blood initiation weekend' came and went without incident.

Coca-Cola Dissolves a Tooth Overnight - United States

Verdict: False

The Coca-Cola Company says its drink will not dissolve teeth overnight.

Early Coca-Cola Contained Cocaine - Atlanta, Georgia

Verdict: True

Reference sources agree the original recipe used coca-leaf extract containing cocaine, and that it was removed in the early 1900s.

KFC and the Mutant Chickens - United States

Verdict: False

Snopes found that no university performed the study named in the email, that the chain's website freely uses the word chicken, and that raising such animals is beyond current science.

Pop Rocks and Soda Make Your Stomach Explode - United States

Verdict: False

General Foods said Pop Rocks make less gas than half a can of soda and can cause nothing worse than a belch.

Spider Eggs in Bubble Yum - United States

Verdict: False

Bubble Yum contained no spider eggs; it was simply the first soft bubble gum.

The $250 Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe - United States

Verdict: False

In 1992 a Neiman Marcus spokesperson said the store never sold a cookie recipe for $250.

The Death of 'Little Mikey' from Life Cereal - United States

Verdict: False

The actor who played Mikey is alive and well, according to reputable reporting (Newsday in 2012, as cited by Snopes).

The Mentos and Coke Death Rumor - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Snopes found no news accounts of such a death in Brazil or elsewhere, noting the account gave no checkable details, and rated the claim False.

The Procter & Gamble Moon-and-Stars Logo Rumor - United States

Verdict: False

The claim is false.

Twinkies Last Forever - United States

Verdict: False

Hostess's official shelf life is 45 days, according to NPR and Smithsonian Magazine.

Worms in McDonald's Hamburgers - United States

Verdict: False

No evidence supports it, and fact-checkers rate it false.

Black-Eyed Kids - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Skeptoid reports that the accounts are copy-pasted from site to site, that nobody has produced a reliable photograph, and that the stories cannot be traced to credible witnesses.

Bonsai Kitten - Massachusetts (MIT students)

Verdict: False

It was a hoax: NBC News reported no kittens were harmed, and the Daily Dot quotes Snopes noting that kittens treated this way would die long before they could be molded.

Cell Phones Starting Gas Station Fires - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

A 1999 University of Oklahoma study concluded that radio-frequency emissions from a phone were not a hazard and that a phone battery also posed no hazard.

Mel's Hole - Near Ellensburg, Washington

Verdict: False

A Washington Department of Natural Resources geologist told the Seattle Times that the volcanic rock in the area makes such a hole unlikely and that the Earth's heat would snap a fishing line long before it reached 80,000 feet.

Polybius - Portland, Oregon

Verdict: Mostly false

Skeptoid says no one in the vintage arcade community claims to have seen an original machine, and no 1980s magazine mentions it.

Slender Man - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Slender Man is a fictional character invented for an online photo-editing contest.

The 2016 Creepy Clown Sightings - Greenville, South Carolina, and across the United States

Verdict: Mixed

Some people really did dress as clowns, and some were arrested; in Alabama alone NPR cited nine people charged in about a week.

The Backrooms - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

The Backrooms is a work of fiction, a creepypasta invented online.

The Facebook Copy-and-Paste Privacy Notice - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

You cannot change a site's terms by posting a status; joining Facebook means accepting its terms, and the notice has no legal effect.

The Momo Challenge - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Full Fact found no clear evidence that anyone had been targeted as described, and children's charities and other experts called the challenge a hoax.

Bloody Mary - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

No apparition has ever been documented.

Hanako-san of the Toilet - School restrooms across Japan

Verdict: Unproven

Hanako-san is a school ghost legend.

Humans Can Lick Too - United States

Verdict: False

Snopes says the 'Aren't you glad...' and 'Humans can lick too' versions are so closely related that it is hard to treat them as separate legends, and rates the story a legend.

Kuchisake-onna, the Slit-Mouthed Woman - Gifu Prefecture and across Japan

Verdict: Mostly false

Nippon.com reports a nationwide rumor panic in 1979 with extra patrols, not a confirmed slit-mouthed attacker.

The Boyfriend's Death - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

No real incident has been matched to the story.

The Hook - United States

Verdict: False

Snopes classifies the story as a legend, and EBSCO's folklore reference describes it as only loosely based on the 1946 Texas attacks.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin - Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany

Verdict: Based on a real event

Scholars generally believe the legend is based on a real event in Hamelin, but what happened to the children is unknown.

The Roommate's Death - United States

Verdict: False

Snopes classes it as a legend with wildly varying details (books versus a sweater, a party versus the library), and the examples it collected were typically placed at 'another college in the state', a friend-of-a-friend trait.

Blue Star LSD Tattoos - United States

Verdict: False

The Drug Enforcement Administration told reporters in 1991 that there had never been a documented case of LSD-soaked tattoos given to children.

Fan Death - South Korea

Verdict: False

Experts say an electric fan is very unlikely to cause suffocation and the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hypothermia theories lack scientific support; the Korea JoongAng Daily says no fan-caused death has been documented.

HIV-Infected Needles in Theater Seats and Gas Pumps - Told everywhere

Verdict: Mostly false

PolitiFact quoted an archived CDC fact sheet saying such reports 'appear to have no foundation in fact' and rated a 2019 post False; it found only one reported case of a needle at a gas pump, in 2017, and the claim that it was HIV-infected was fabricated.

Spider Eggs in Your Cheek - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

The Burke Museum says spiders do not use the human body as a place to lay eggs and that no actual case like this can be found anywhere in the scientific or medical literature.

The Dancing Plague of 1518 - Strasbourg, Alsace, France (then part of the Holy Roman Empire)

Verdict: True

HISTORY says the event is well documented in 16th-century records, with as many as 400 dancers.

The Kidney Heist - United States

Verdict: False

Snopes rates it False.

Alligators in the New York City Sewers - New York City sewer system

Verdict: Mostly false

In February 1935 the New York Times reported that boys shoveling snow in East Harlem pulled an alligator out of a storm sewer; it was weak after its icy confinement and died.

Black Cats Are Sacrificed at Halloween - United States

Verdict: Mostly false

Smithsonian Magazine says there is no evidence that people go out of their way to harm cats on Halloween.

Giant Camel Spiders in Iraq - Iraq

Verdict: Mostly false

Camel spiders are real, but they are solifuges, not true spiders, and are not venomous.

Lemming Mass Suicide - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Lemmings do not commit mass suicide, according to Alaska wildlife officials.

The Choking Doberman - United States

Verdict: False

Snopes says efforts to track the tale to an actual incident failed.

The Exploding Cactus Full of Baby Tarantulas - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

The Burke Museum's spider myths page says the event never happened: tarantulas do not lay eggs in cactus plants, hatching egg sacs do not explode, and baby tarantulas are quite harmless anyway.

The Microwaved Pet - Told everywhere

Verdict: False

Snopes classes it as a legend and says accidental cases of owners not understanding the oven are 'still incidents of lore only.' The encyclopedia entry says it cannot be traced to any definitive source.